Fairwork launches the Workers’ Centre: a suite of online resources to support and amplify the voices of gig workers

Through our research and ratings, we strive to be a useful resource for gig economy workers, and those looking to improve working conditions on platforms. With this in mind, we are launching the Workers’ Centre, a new branch within our project dedicated to developing materials to support platform workers.

The goals of the Workers’ Centre are:

• To raise awareness among workers and labour advocates of other projects and campaigns, local regulatory responses, platform practices and effective strategies for platform workers to thrive.
• To strengthen workers organising efforts and promote the valuable work of emerging workers associations and unions in supporting gig workers.
• To build solidarity among networks of platform workers.

We have recently released the first set of resources for the Workers’ Centre, all of which are available on our website and will be updated regularly.

Unions and Workers Associations’ Directory:

We are building a global public directory of unions and membership associations that represent the interests of gig workers and/or online workers in different sectors and locations. The directory aims to raise awareness of the valuable work of emerging unions and workers’ associations, as well as helping platform workers find local organisations that can provide them with advice and resources.

We are working to expand the list to more countries and sectors. If you know of an organisation that should be listed in our directory, please contact us.

Resources and Tools:

We have compiled a list of resources and tools that may be useful for workers navigating work in the gig economy. This includes tools to help workers keep track of active work time and connect to others working in their sector, as well as sources of information about worker rights, platform policies, and tools that can be used by labour advocates to organize more efficiently.

Know of a resource that others would benefit from? Let us know!

Fairwork Podcast:

The new Fairwork podcast looks at the stories of people within the gig economy, exploring the intersection between precarity and technology through the lens of our five principles of fair work.

Each episode of our initial five-part series will take one Fairwork principle (Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair management and Fair Representation) and explore how this area has impacted a worker’s experience. Through the series, we speak to workers who have made headlines with legal cases, taken part in strikes and those just quietly trying to make a living. The Fairwork Podcast is written and produced by Robbie Warin, with original music from Louis Borlase.

The first episode of the podcast series focuses on representation. In particular, we look at the Deliveroo Strikes of 2016. This was the first time that workers in the gig economy had mobilised in the UK, taking to the streets to make their voices heard. We explore how the events that took place that summer shaped the lives of workers in the gig economy to this day as we’re still coming to terms with the ramifications of its successes and failures.

For this episode, we follow the story of former courier, Mohaan Biswas. Mohaan was working for Deliveroo at the time of the strikes and his involvement in the strikes that summer led to him becoming a major part of attempts to organise gig workers in the UK. He speaks to us about his experience as a Deliveroo rider and the reasons that led him to join the protests. Through Mohaan’s experiences, we explore what it’s like trying to organise and negotiate with gig economy platforms. What are the difficulties of talking with a company that doesn’t legally employ you? What happens when hundreds of workers come out from behind the screen to make their voices heard?

The Fairwork Podcast gives us a unique opportunity to place the voice of workers at the centre of present discussions around the future of work and we hope the series will empower workers by showing why their experiences are important and should be heard.

You can listen to the first episode on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music and Acast.